Operation Molerats: Cyber attacks targetting Middle East and US

Don’t be too hasty to link every Poison Ivy-based cyber attack to China. The popular remote access tool (RAT), which we recently detailed on this blog, is being used in a broad campaign of attacks launched from the Middle East, too.

First, some background:

In October 2012, malware attacks against Israeli government targets grabbed media attention as officials temporarily cut off Internet access for its entire police force and banned the use of USB memory sticks. [1] Security researchers subsequently linked these attacks to a broader, yearlong campaign that targeted not just Israelis but Palestinians as well. [2] — and as discovered later, even the U.S. and UK governments. [3] Further research revealed a connection between these attacks and members of the so-called “Gaza Hackers Team.” We refer to this campaign as “Molerats.”

SOURCEL vigilance-securitymagazine.com